Hi ladies, its been two days since i tried for the first time to make some buttercream roses, i let  them air dry, but they won't dry they are still soft and seems the butter is melted at the bottom of the flower, do you air dry in a cool room? What am i doing wrong? Thanks

I am not sure but I think the buttercream should be a crusting recipe which normally has crisco or high ratio shortening in it.  I have made mine with butter and crisco mixed together. I could be wrong since I have never tried letting my buttercream flowers air dry before. Let's see what others have to say on this subject!!

I just saw the recipe for air-dry buttercream when I was flipping through my recipe book yesterday. It's all-crisco, not butter, and water not milk. If it has butter in it it will crust a little but it won't dry out.

That's to get flowers that will actually dry out, though.

Thank you ladies, costumeczar, i will try all crisco then, should i add vanilla or butter flavor? Or just crisco water and sugar, thanks a lot!

I think you can add butter flavor, that's optional.

What makes b'cream icing crust/dry is *less* fat.  All shortening is best and IMHO Crisco is best shortineing to u se.  So make your b'cream with 1 cup of shortening to 1 pound of powdered sugar.  Some water could be used if it is too hard to push through you tip but just a bit.    Yrs ago I posted a recipe on here for "icing for air dried flowers."  I don't know if it is still around and I don't remember the amounts now :(   Maybe you could search thru the frosting recipes and find it.

I looked mine up, the recipe is:

1 Tbsp butter flavor (optional)

1 cup Crisco

1 pound confectioner's sugar

4 tsp meringue powder

1/8 cup water (or more or less to adjust the texture)

if the roses are not going to be a pale pink or pale blue you could just use your regular american buttercream (fat + confectioner's sugar + flavor + liquid) and just add cornstarch and it will dry nicely -- i think milk powder makes it crust like crazy too but i haven't used it in eons --

but to get pale pink/blue you need to use straight white shortening otherwise with butter and vanilla  you'd have peach and green

best to you

You are all so kind, thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, i will try that recipe costumeczar, thanks again!

Here's my air-dry buttercream recipe...used it for about 30 years now!

2 pounds powdered sugar

1/2 cup cake flour

1 cup vegetable shortening

1/3 cup near boiling water (you many need a teaspoon or two more)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the sugar and flour together into your mixing bowl.  Add the shortening, vanilla and 1/3 cup water and mix on low to combine, then continue mixing until smooth.   Make several hours ahead or let sit overnight...it will firm up somewhat on standing. 

Color as usual.  If it's too stiff, add a teaspoon or two of hot water.  Stored covered in the fridge it will keep several months!

Thank you so much Jeff Arnett!!!

that's the recipe that I used on my recent floral cake.  Made the flowers the day ahead of time so they were easy to pickup and place on the cake.